Chapter Ten
An Attempted Coup
Rising, as often, proved painful. The tips of her tails, and the end of her wing, despite KnockOut's tending, were still sore, and sensitive to the chill air. She flexed her systems, slowly, running an efficiency diagnostic, taking into account the injuries to her frame. She rated herself at 97% flight efficiency, but only 94% combat efficiency, and immediately began assessing the optimal repair schedule. She confirmed, and then sent along the schedule to KnockOut, who replied, a few moments later, with confirmation. She walked toward the repair bay, outwardly blank, but inwardly, she pondered her plan of action. Her injuries were much more mild than those of Starscream's Trine. If ever there was a time for attack, it was now. She brought up and displayed a message from that morning.
'Starscream's right leg thruster is damaged, and the casing is cracked. It's a weakpoint. Strike carefully, and quick.'
She replayed the memories of the battle in her head, watching every wound they had taken, looking carefully for weaknesses. When she felt confident of her appraisal, she strolled into repair bay, where Starscream sat, hunched forward, on one of the slabs. "Starscream," she began, not even slowing her stride, until she was face to face with him. Thundercracker and Skywarp were immediately behind their leader, Thundercracker an invisible half-step farther back than Skywarp. "I challenge for leadership of your Trine."
Starscream laughed, outright, startled by her bold claim, but his eyes narrowed, aggressively, and his airfoils snipped shut, giving his body a slightly leaner, more predatory aspect. He stood, slowly, his eyes never leaving her. "And why should I let you do that, little bird?"
"I challenge you," she repeated, "for leadership of your Trine."
He nodded, thoughtfully. "Fine. One hour, front deck. Are you sure you can take," he gestured, expansively, 'All of us?'
She nodded, sharply, tucking her own airfoils in close, and drawing herself up, like a bird of prey in black and blue. Starscream took a half-pace aside showing off the lean, angular form of his body, shoulders drawn back in a gesture of intimidation. She remained facing forward, though her jet intakes fluttered, and a slight heat-haze rippled into view around her engines. "One hour, Starscream."
He turned his back on her, unconcerned, and Skywarp turned with him. Thundercracker delayed, just a moment as she locked eyes with him. He simply stared back, his expression blank, before turning, with a very tiny nod of his head.
An hour later, she was perched on the tip of the ship, staring outward, over the vast desert. She heard the commotion of heavy metallic boots lining up farther back, taking positions on the deck. Eventually, right on the hour mark, she felt three pairs of feet walking up behind her, two of them in unison. "You wanted your challenge, flightling?" Starscream hissed out, stridently, behind her, "Let the challenge begin." Before she could even turn, she felt his heavy boot connect with her back propelling her out into open air. She turned, in midair, to face them, and saw Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp already mid-transformation, standing at the edge of the ship. Distantly she saw a distinctive, two-pronged silhouette atop the bridge, with a narrow, jagged form beside him.
Thundercracker and Skywarp dove, Starscream right behind, in their fight forms, moving to swiftly box her in, but she transformed, and dove under them, dodging beneath the ship. Frantic pursuit swept after her, engines screaming in echo from the smooth bottom of the Nemesis, the plate above her head singing with the vibrations of powerful engines straining for an edge. She spun, upide-down, and pulled into a tight loop, attempting to once more slip beneath their charging triangle, but Skywarp suddenly closed wings into robot form, and very nearly slammed into her, as she desperately rolled out of the way. She yanked up, tightly, on her right-side airfoils spinning as she shifted back into robot, for a brief dive, and then shifting back up to race right over Thundercracker, who attempted a clumsy grab, and missed. Skywarp appeared in front of her, a double-flash, and sunk his fingers into the leading edges of her wings, yanking her downward as her momentum screeched and strained at the metal of her wings. He yanked sideways, and released, throwing her, disoriented, straight into the path of Thundercracker who landed a heavy, glancing blow across the flat of her left wing, with much less force then there could've been. She spun downward, out of control for a painful few seconds, before she regained her orientation, and took control of the dive, forcing her suddenly hesitant left wing to take her into a graceless arc across the sky. She pinged her active radar, picking up on two blips, nearby. Suddenly, a third appeared, directly in front of her. She dove aside, narrowly avoiding Skywarp's grab, barely sliding past him, but directly into the path of a vicious grab-tackle, by Starscream. He gripped onto her, as she tried to switch back into robot form, and forced her already-injured left wing to remain out. His left hand gripped the base of her left wing's leading edge, while his right hand pulled forcefully at her engines. She grimaced, with pain, as they fell into a rapid dive, losing altitude, as they both attempted to thrust into an advantageous position.
In her mind, she reached a decision.
Suddenly, as Starscream released, to go for a grab at her face, she spun aside – and rapidly vanished from sight. Startled, Starscream released the empty air in front of him, desperately clawing his way out of the dive, in flight form. An instant later, there was a massive impact on the lower left side of his back, just above the thruster itself, cracking the housing around the engine. He gave a strident yell of pain, twisting around to strike at empty air. A ripple in the air, like a haze of heat, taunted him, from just outside of his reach.
She felt the rapid pings of his radar, like grease in the air, siding off of her active camouflage, as she dove past him, swinging around sharply, to drive a vicious punch into his wing as he began to transform back. Skywarp and Thundercracker flew close, attempting to spot the suddenly invisible target which assaulted their leader. Trine adaptability struck quickly into action, as Oracle was forced to disengage, to avoid their racing wings. She clawed for altitude, wartching them vanish to tiny dots far beneath her, and waiting for an opening. She slid into a backflip, and pointed her nose at the dot on the right, speeding rapidly closer, as she slammed on her engines, pouring energy into her afterburners, which made the air behind her flicker silver-blue. As she drew swiftly closer, the dot on the right climbed, to take an overwatch position, placing him exactly perpendicular to her line of flight. The purple and white shape resolved in front of her, only instants before she transformed, right foot extended before her dive.
The massive, crunching impact actually caused her camouflage to flicker and fail briefly, as parts of her body became briefly visible, like a patchwork image of a bird of prey.
Skywarp, however, briefly angled upward, as her foot struck just below his centerline, rocketing him upward, before he fell into a half-loop, and began a steep fall, wingtip-first, toward the ground. His engines flickered and failed, as the sudden impact actually knocked his electronics into a forced-shutdown. A sudden, angry scream rent the air, as Thundercracker accelerated into her, knocking her sideways, as she hung suspended in the air, all of her momentum transferred to the falling Decepticon. Thundercracker immediately pushed off of her, and dove for his fallen brother, as Starscream spun over to engage her.
Her active camouflage finally failed, fully, from the second, unexpected impact. She tried to regain altitude, but Starscream battered at her, with his wings, forcing her to lose height too rapidly. Finally, they plummeted near the ground, and she forced herself away from him just soon enough to throw herself into a roll, as she transformed into robot form. He followed swiftly after her, striking at her with short, vicious jabs and kicks. She reached out, and grabbed his leg, yanking him downward to the ground, viciously, and rolled on top of him, to punch at his face and chest, cracking the housing around his spark.
A sudden impact from her side took her off of Starscream, Thundercracker following up with a series of jabs and twists, avoiding all of her desperate strikes, and striking back with directed rage. "Thundercracker!" She cried out as he kicked her across the midsection, sending her tumbling. "This wasn't what we agreed to," he growled out, following up with a sharp stomp across her forearm, crunching the motivators, and paralyzing her right hand. He twisted, and moved to stomp on her face, though she pulled herself out of the way, and punched forcefully into his thigh. He staggered, as she pulled herself up, her right forearm failing her, and making her fall onto her chest. He slammed a foot into her ribs, flipping her over, and punched down into her already broken right arm, as she tried to ward off his strike. "You nearly killed him!" Thundercracker snarled at her, angrily, ruthlessly driving another kick into the damaged forearm. She attempted to speak, again, but her vocal systems were short-circuited by a violent kick to the throat.
She gagged, as her body translated the strike into the vicious blow it would have been to her human body, and her air intakes shut up tightly, engines sputtering, starved of air. She rolled out of the way, as Starscream stepped up, and grabbed her by the back of her head, dragging her, on her knees, across the ground. She pushed open her air intakes, and heaved a desperate breath of air, engines beginning to whine with building power, until Starscream simply slammed his fist into the left air intake crumpling it, and choking off the air supply to the engine. Linmp and unresistant, he pulled her into the shade of a cliff, the Nemesis just out of sight. He grabbed her intact left arm, by the elbow, and slowly wrenched it around, until the motivators cracked, and crumpled. She looked around, her visual sensors filled with static, as systems began failing. A sharp, angular shadow resided, deeper within the shade of the Cliffside, leaning casually back, a completely featureless face watching her, impassively, from the darkness. Thundercracker took a few more, vicious strikes at her prone form, before stepping back. "I don't take kindly to sparkings challenging my authority," Starscream hissed at her, pacing back and forth, slowly. "In fact, I think you're about to have a horrible… Accident." Almost imperceptibly, he glanced toward Soundwave, who gestured, imperiously. Starscream's gun extended from his right forearm, and he placed the barrel directly against her core's casing. "No one will ever know, little Sparkling. I could end you, right here… And no one would notice. No one. And everything would go back… How… It… Was." The blaster's core began to spin to life, charging with energy. A moment later, there was a heavy impact of massive feet striking down, a short distance behind. Starscream's blaster withdrew, and he lifted her by her chassis. Genesis' voice growled out, "Starscream, you've won. You remain the leader of your Trine. Oracle, you have failed in your attempt to take leadership of the first Trine, and, for now, will remain without one. Well flown, all of you. KnockOut will tend to your injuries aboard the Nemesis." She looked, pleadingly, up at Genesis who didn't even look at her, as he spoke. He gestured, and the leading edge of the Nemesis slowly crept into sight, above. The flares of dozens of engines lit up the underside of the Nemesis' hull, as they approached. "Seeker Starscream, First Trine Leader, remains leader!" Genesis shouted to the approaching Seekers, and many cheers replied. Starscream glared down the length of his arm at Oracle, before tossing her up against the Cliffside, and walking away.
Only she noticed that, just as he was walking away, he paused for an infinite moment and glanced in the direction where Soundwave had been, not even his footprints remaining in the sand to show he had ever been present. Her ocular sensors, static-ridden and unclear, registered something that surprised even her; when Starscream looked at the deep shadows where the other Decepticon had been, he almost seemed afraid.
Her body gave one last shudder of energy, and went dark, as her systems fell into a full reset cycle. Red damage assessment lights blinked on all over her body, as her eyes slid closed.